Month: February 2014

Yay! I’m excited to be typing out this post today. I have been thinking about and dreaming about making this headboard for months, but it kept getting put on the backburner until finally we made it happen last week!

Check out the before…

And after!

The fresh gray stripes make the bed look more sophisticated and elegant but still fun (which is very important). I had to take off the floral print pillow shams though, as they were competing a little too much visually with the stripes. It was just a little too much to take in! So I’m planning to switch out the bedding for neutral colored bedding, but maybe with a little more texture to contrast with the stripes.

And the headboard was actually pretty easy to do. I love that this really trendy look is so easy to DIY, making it approachable for most of us.

First you cut a sheet of plywood the size of your headboard. We wanted a thicker, more substantial headboard, so we framed the back of the plywood out with 2×3’s.

Then we cut out our foam to fit (not pictured) and secured it with hot glue. We actually cannibalized an old foam mattress for our foam. However, because the foam was thicker (about 1.75″), it was quite heavy and didn’t stick to the plywood that well. We didn’t want to use spray adhesive because it is quite high in VOCs, and we didn’t want to be breathing it in. We later solved the problem of the slightly loose foam by doing some simple button tufting.

After sticking the foam on, we wrapped the whole thing with polyester batting and then the fabric.

I used 3 yards of Premier Prints Canopy Stripe Twill Storm. I wanted a vertical stripe though, instead of horizontal, so I cut the fabric in half and sewed it together right in the middle with a seam along one of the stripes. You can’t even tell it’s there =).

We used a staple gun (and when our staple gun gave out, a hammer stapler), and tapped in any loose staples with a hammer.

This is how I folded the corners:

I wrapped the extra folded fabric on the inside first and stapled that down…

Then I folded the fabric right along the corner for a nice square corner.

At this point we added some simple button tufting using a button kit from Joanns, an upholstery needle, and waxed button thread (or upholstery thread). I didn’t take pictures of this step but here’s a great tutorial. We put in just 10 buttons, and they worked great for keeping the foam tight and secure. The extra tightness also helped smooth out some of the wrinkles that I couldn’t iron out.

I’m really happy with the finished product! It makes me feel like I’m waking up in a hotel every day.

I also feel like it is true to my personal style, which also makes me happy. It’s fresh, contemporary, and unfussy, but still elegant… Or at least I like to think so, ha!

As for how it’s attached, it is hung on the wall with brackets but is also sitting on the bed frame behind the mattress.

For some reason, the stripes remind me of Montreal. Kind of French-Canadian chic…=)!

Now for the bedding… I’m thinking of just going with a neutral taupe. I realize I love color way too much…and it’s best for me to add it in small doses with accessories rather than the big pieces. I think a taupe duvet cover will be a nice canvas for printed pillows, throws, etc… What do you think?

We haven’t visited the bathroom since we painted the grout lines way back in June (they’re holding up great, by the way). I thought it would be fun to show you a before and after (or at least, current progress) pic of our one-and-only bathroom.

When we moved in, the bathroom was actually not in bad shape.

There were a few cosmetic issues, but it had been redone in what seems like the 90’s, so the vanity and bathtub were still fine. We changed out the light fixture for one that we picked up at the Habitat Restore for $10, removed the shower doors, and painted the walls above the beadboard gray (Behr Dolphin Fin).

And this is how it looks now.

I hung a shower curtain we’ve had for a while and added some woven mats.

I painted the white medicine cabinet frame in a glossy gray. I would really like to replace the mirror but the medicine cabinet is so useful…I haven’t figured out what to do there yet.

The scalloped white ceramic vanity top isn’t my favorite. It stains really easily and the scallop is just old-fashioned. We actually have a granite vanity top that we bought for $90 on Craigslist…we just haven’t had time to install it yet. We also picked up another, nicer fixture from the Restore…also haven’t installed it yet. Story of my life!

Hung a little art and a shelf above the toilet for extras.

There is no natural light in this room so I’m trying to think of ways to incorporate a few more cheery touches of color. Maybe I’ll switch out the art or change the shower curtain or bath mats.

Anyway, this is how it really looks. It’s not very big, or trendy, but we’re happy to live with it as is. Just thought I’d put that out there =).

It occurred to me lately that the guestroom pictures I have up on this site don’t reflect the current style of the guest room.

This is what it looks like now:

I apologize for the harsh light but this was the only time of day I could find to take this picture…it’s been a busy day.

It used to look like this:

I liked the red and white scheme for a while but decided I wanted something a little more grown up. Also, the bohemian sheer curtains were pretty but didn’t block any light…kind of the opposite of what you want in a bedroom. So I bought some ticking stripe fabric and clipped it up for curtains (just before my parents came to stay for a couple of weeks).

There are some framed pictures in the chair that I haven’t gotten a chance to put up yet…

I picked up this little mid century nightstand for $5 at a neighbor’s garage sale. I moved one of the old lamps from the master bedroom into this room.

This room is getting a little closer to where I want it to be. but there still needs to be a lot more COLOR added. I do like having a base of neutrals and adding colors on top of it. Unfortunately the budget doesn’t really allow me to go all out shopping for accessories, haha! Which brings me to my next point…

I sometimes wish I had unlimited funds to decorate, not necessarily to buy expensive stuff, but because it would be so much easier to get things consistently looking “my style”. Our current style is much more about finding thrifty deals, making them over, using what we have, building our own, etc… I sometimes wistfully think about HOW I would decorate a room if I could make it all over completely. It’s totally unrealistic, haha =). But on the other hand, there’s also something really cool about looking at the great things we’ve found for a song, and seeing how everything in our home has gradually gotten collected or created.

Like that mid century nightstand — I mean, it’s definitely a high to find something that cool at a garage sale for five bucks. Or for example, look at some of the really awesome things that Chris has created, like the rustic DIY dining table, or the industrial chandelier, or even the lamps that I just spray painted. If we had an unlimited budget we never would have found/created those things. So…I guess frugality begets creativity. And the real fun is in the process.

I mean, sure, it would be fun to go to Restoration Hardware and buy everything to furnish my house, but then… my home would just look like a RH catalog.

It’s easy to compare your home with others (especially all those gorgeous blogs out there) and wish you had similar things, but at the end of the day it’s more satisfying to use your creativity and the ingenuity you never would have used otherwise, right?

This week has been kind of exciting. Lots of thinking, researching, and discussing my professional future. Nothing has been decided for sure yet, but I’m starting to be ready for a new challenge and I’m getting pretty excited thinking about it.

Anyway, there was a little more progress on the bedroom makeover.

I DIY-ed a couple of glossy navy blue lamps to bring a little more navy to this space. As you may recall, it looked like this after I added some Greek Key trim to the curtains:

The current bedside lamps were a little small in scale and were getting a bit lost next to our king-size bed and generously-sized nightstands.

So I decided to make over a couple of trophy lamps that I had picked up from the Habitat Restore a while back. They were $5 each, new, and I’m pretty sure they were overstocked from Walmart.

There was nothing wrong with the oil-rubbed bronze finish but I wanted something less traditional and more fun in our bedroom.

I taped off the light sockets and cords and gave the lamps several light coats of navy blue spray paint.

Then I let the lamps cure in the garage for 2 weeks to ensure that the major part of the off-gassing occurred before we brought the lamps into our room.

I am really really happy with how they turned out. I think this is one of my favorite spray paint projects to date. It helps that I’m getting better at spraying lightly and evenly and I’ve learned not to spray paint on a windy day =).

The glossy navy finish actually makes these cheap lamps look way more expensive.

The lampshades are just $10 shades from IKEA but I’m thinking of adding some ribbon trim to the edges.

The new lamps are more appropriate in scale to the room (please ignore the crooked duvet!).

I really wanted to keep him but sadly his arms didn’t fit under my newly refinished desk. But I really loved this guy’s midcentury features, the shiny leather next to the walnut wood, the tufted seat, and the fact that he was in AMAZING condition. Fortunately I was able to sell him for a decent price to someone who I think will appreciate his awesomeness. Now I imagine him living a comfortable life in hipsterland surrounded by his midcentury peers.

ANYWAY, back to my new chair. I couldn’t find a cute office chair that didn’t look too “office-y”. This office area is in our bedroom and we only use it for household stuff, so I didn’t want it to get too businesslike and potentially stressful. I ended up choosing the Lydia dining chair from World Market.

It’s a nice neutral steel gray in a lovely soft velvet so I think it’ll go well anywhere in the house if I decide to move it later. I’m going to make a more poppy, colorful cushion to go on it to bring in more color.

I like that it’s kind of a more feminine shape, which is kind of what I’m going for in the bedroom.

The nailhead trim makes it a little more interesting from the back, since that’s the first view when you enter the room.

There’s not too much going on on the desk right now, which is just how I like it.

Oh and you may have noticed the closet doors are back on after having been newly painted bright white. I need to get some cute knobs for them now.

This view is nice too:

I guess baby approves.

I’m actually really glad I was able to sell the old chair and use the money toward something that suited the space better. Oh, and the new chair was 15% off and I had a $10 reward that I used on it so that really helped to alleviate any buyer’s guilt too =).